From Charlie Chan to The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan’s seminal 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club was the first glimpse many Americans had into the Chinese American experience, but history professor Mae Ngai says the challenge of translating that experience goes far beyond the book. Scholars must “think about how Chinese Americans have been represented in American literary and popular culture over the years and think about what that has meant and how it is changing,” Ngai said in her opening remarks during a panel about the creation of Chinese America at the Downtown Independent Theater. …
